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18th century
Civic and intellectual leaders in colonial and revolutionary America
copy the aristocratic and fashionable Europe interest in agriculture,
science, and commerce, and form societies to promote these interests
1785
The Philadelphia Society for the Promotion of Agriculture and other
rural concerns are organized
1794
Whiskey Rebellion, a farmers' revolt against taxes on grain in whiskey
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1802
George Washington Parke Custis institutes an agricultural fair in
Arlington, VA
1811
Berkshire Agricultural Society organized under Elkanah Watson's leadership
1817-25
Agricultural societies and fairs flourish under State aid
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1838
Proposals made to use James Smithson's grant to establish a National
Agricultural College
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1840-60
Interest in agricultural societies revived
1850s
Farmers begin cooperative to make cheese and to market wool and tobacco
1850s
Farmers' clubs proliferate in Midwest
1852
United States Agricultural Society organized
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1860
941 agricultural societies in the United States
1867
National Grange organized
1871
National Grange sanctions cooperative enterprise
1873-76
Granger movement at its height
1874-80
Farmers' Alliance movement begins
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1880-96
Agricultural pressure groups gather strength
1882
Agricultural Wheel formed
1891
Populist Party launched on national scale
1896
Height of Populist movement
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1902
Farmers' Union started; American Society of Equity formed
1905
California Fruit Growers Exchange formed
1906
Appointment of first county agricultural agent
1909-17
Boys' and girls' club work underway
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1910
Farmers' Equity Union organized
1911
First Farm Bureau formed in Broome County, NY
1915
Non-Partisan League formed
1915-17
International Workers of the World ("Wobblies") organize
thousands of wheat harvest workers
1919
American Farm Bureau Federation formally organized in Chicago, Illinois
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1920s
Farm organization set up strong lobbies in Washington
1920-32
Cooperative movement spreads
1922
Capper-Volstead Act gives cooperatives legal standing
1925
Beginning of the Master Farmer movement
1929
National Council of Farmers Cooperatives organized
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1930
11,950
cooperative with 3 million members
1932-23
Farmers' Holiday movement stages strikes and blocks farm sales
1934
Southern Tenant Farmers Union formed to cope with sharecroppers displaced
during the New Deal
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1947
National Farm Labor Union (formerly Southern Tenant Farmers Union)
organizes strike among California farmworkers
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 1950s
10,051
cooperatives with 7 million members
1955
National Farmers Organization formed
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1960s
United Farm Workers Organizing Committee begins unionizing California
farmworkers
1960s
Commodity groups move to forefront of influence with Congress
1962
Silent Spring, by U.S. biologist Rachel Carson, warns of dangers to wildlife from indiscriminate use of persistent pesticides, such as DDT. The book becomes a best-seller
1966
Fair Labor Standards Act extended to include agricultural labor; Federal
minimum wage extended to some farmworkers
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1970
7,994 cooperatives with 6.2 million members
1970
Earth Day is celebrated for the first time
1971
The Maine Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association is organized
1973
Fifty farmers organize California Certified Organic Farmers
1979
The American Agriculture Movement organizes a "tractorcade" demonstration in Washington, DC
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1986-88
Country singer Willie Nelson organizes first of the
Farm Aid concerts to benefit indebted farmers
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